The Longing of the Oracle, 2024

The Longing of the Oracle is an archival anthology documenting a cycle of annual writing rituals.

The project is inspired by the history of the Delphic Oracle of ancient Greece. "The Pythia" was not one single woman, but a sacred title held by a succession of many local women over nearly a thousand years. In 394 AD, as Emperor Theodosius ordered the closure of all temples, the last to hold the title gave a final message:

“Tell ye King: the carven hall is fallen in decay; Apollo hath no chapel left, no prophesying bay, No talking spring. The stream is dry and had so much to say.”

To free these Oracles is to embody the archetype within ourselves—the Pythia in us. By seeing the Oracle as an archetype we can all inhabit, we allow the 'dry stream' to flow again through our own intuitive voices.

The project originated from Maria Stella’s graduation thesis, Endingbeginning, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.

Maria Stella’s graduation thesis is a research on lamentation and the word "longing," written in a lyrical and braided style to reflect the essence of lamentation. Include examples of artists who work with the word "longing," as well as historical references to the last oracle of Pythia, which will serve as a central point for the research on longing and the meaning of an oracle.